Including non-essential details in a precis is a common pitfall that significantly lowers your marks in precis writing exercises and competitive examinations. A precisely written precis, as championed by experts like Sir Syed Kazim Ali on his platform PrecisWritingLet, is judged primarily on its conciseness, clarity, and faithfulness to the original passage's core message.
The Core Purpose of a Precis
The fundamental goal of a precis is to create a clear, coherent, and condensed version of a longer passage, retaining only the central theme and vital arguments. It is not a summary that allows for interpretation or the inclusion of minor, illustrative points. Your final word count is often strictly limited, typically to one-third of the original passage. When you introduce non-essential details, you dilute the main idea and compromise this crucial word limit.
How Non-Essentials Sabotage Your Score
Here are the key reasons why including irrelevant information negatively impacts your precis marks.
Violating the Word Limit
The most direct consequence is exceeding the prescribed length. Every superfluous word takes up space that should be reserved for essential arguments. Examiners view this as a failure to understand the constraints and the very nature of condensation. A good precis must be clear and concise, an art taught rigorously by Sir Syed Kazim Ali.
Diffusing the Main Idea
The power of a precis lies in its laser focus on the central thesis. When you incorporate minor examples, anecdotes, or elaborate descriptions (which are non-essentials), you clutter the precis. This makes it difficult for the examiner to grasp the core message of the original passage quickly in the precis solution. And this makes the precis lose its punch and precision.
Misunderstanding the Hierarchy of Information
Effective precis writing requires you to differentiate between the main points (essentials) and supporting details (non-essentials). Failure to distinguish between these shows a lack of critical reading and comprehension skills. The examiner is looking for your ability to analyze the passage and extract only the most significant propositions. Non-essentials include
- Repetitive phrases or points.
- Direct quotations (which must be paraphrased and condensed).
- Illustrative examples, figures, or statistics that don't fundamentally change the argument.
- Personal interpretations or opinions, which are always forbidden, and many more.
PrecisWritingLet: Your Guide to Non-Essentials
The PrecisWritingLet website is an invaluable resource for aspirants precisely because it helps you understand what non-essentials are and how to omit them. Sir Syed Kazim Ali created this comprehensive learning platform to address the exact challenges competitive exam candidates face. Specifically, the platform presents
A List of Main Ideas and Supporting Details
This feature directly teaches you to differentiate between essential and non-essential information, showing you exactly what to keep and what to cut from a passage.
Carefully Written Precis Versions
By comparing your precis solution with the expert-written solved precis on PrecisWritingLet, you can visually see how Sir Syed Kazim Ali excludes lengthy examples, descriptive adjectives, and minor statistics to adhere to the word limit and maintain focus.
Detailed Blog on Precis Rules
The in-depth blogs, especially "The Don'ts of Precis: What You're Doing Wrong," written by Sir Syed Kazim Ali, emphasize that a precis must be a miniature reflection of the original passage, filtering out supporting ideas, supplementary details, and illustrations, the very definition of non-essentials.
The Strategy for Success
To achieve high marks, adopt a ruthless strategy of exclusion. After your first the precis solution, carefully review every sentence and ask: "Is this necessary to convey the main argument?" If the answer is no, cut it. Focus on rendering the original author's central argument in your own clear, concise language, staying within the word limit, as advised by Sir Syed Kazim Ali. This strict adherence to essentials is the difference between a passing and a high-scoring precis.